The Constance Hotels Group with their Ephelia & Lemuria Resorts on Mahe and Praslin and the Beachcomber Hotels with their Sainte Anne Resort are forging ahead to support the efforts being done to open that potential market.

Recently, Ethiopian Airlines arrived with a large group of Chinese holiday makers and since then, regular smaller groups have been landing in Seychelles through the different airlines flying to Seychelles. The local DMCs (Destination Management Companies) have also been working on the Chinese Market, and several of them have recently undertaken working visits in China.

This week, the Seychelles Tourism Board China Office is joining in with a group of hotel companies from Mauritius in meetings in China to position Seychelles alongside Mauritius and La Reunion as the new tourism destinations for 2012 at the same time that the Seychelles Tourism Board will be heading a delegation of eleven tourism trade professionals on a working visit to Hong Kong all in a bid to open the Seychelles to the Chinese holiday makers.

“The commitment by three of our main resorts to commit one hundred rooms will encourage the Chinese tour operators in their efforts to promote Seychelles. It is a catch twenty-two situation. Without committed rooms, tour operators are reluctant to invest to promote the destination. Now they can forge ahead and promote fully our islands,” Alain St.Ange, CEO of the Seychelles Tourism Board said.

The Seychelles Tourism Board said that they remain committed to work with the local partners and all airlines serving the Seychelles to claim back the island’s share of the French, Italian, and UK markets and that they will work with everyone interested to work to develop new tourist markets for Seychelles. “Seychelles cannot sit and wait for the economy of Europe to get better and for air access to be what we all expect it should be. We need to work all together to reclaim our share of the market from France, Italy, and the UK, but we will also work with tourism partners wanting to diversify their client base by attracting tourists from new destinations,” Alain St.Ange said.

“Every tourist landing in Seychelles and staying in a hotel accommodation is a tourist, which we count on to help consolidate our country’s tourism industry. They are, immaterial from where they come, they are visitors that count for our country, and we need to be happy that we are able as a country to diversify our target markets,” Alain St.Ange ended in saying.

“Tufu Bay is ideally suited for creating the first One&Only experience in China. The setting is just spectacular and I am very confident the resort will be well received by our many loyal One&Only guests and new guests alike,” said Sol Kerzner, chairman of Kerzner International, which will develop the resort with Hainan Gezhouba Industrial Company Limited and Greentown Hotel Management Co.

“It feels terrific to be able to make this announcement and get back to doing what we do best – designing and managing world-class luxury resorts”.

The new addition will be One&Only’s eighth following properties in the Maldives, Mauritius, Dubai, the Bahamas, Mexico and South Africa.

The “whole of Government” effort was expected to involve about 200 officials – diplomats, trade officials, science, education and investment advisers, customs, police and more – when brought to fruition.

This is alongside a new Beijing Embassy to project New Zealand’s identity in the Chinese capital.

For a strategy that has been promoted as a signature piece of the Government’s economic growth agenda, it has taken an inordinately long time to get into the public domain.

The strategy wasn’t finally signed off and launched until Friday, but it was “ready for implementation” last March.

It’s not just the China strategy that has been moving at a snail’s pace. Ministry working papers also indicate that the Australia and United States strategies were expected to be ready in the middle of last year.

They will not be launched until later this year.

This bureaucratic tardiness undermines the Government’s plan to increase exports to 40 per cent of GDP (a one-third increase) by 2025.

A year ago, business people told MFAT that the free-trade deal with China created business and political opportunities but New Zealand needed to make the most of its “first mover advantage”. New Zealand businesses were underperforming in China through a lack of capital and lack of specific Chinese knowledge.

There was a perception that China wanted to interact with “world-class” businesses and sectors, particularly agritech and food and beverage sectors.

The New Zealand brand has cachet in China for safe food and as a tourism destination but it needed clear definition and protection.

The strategy addresses elements of this.

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise has identified 50 firms that it will work alongside to increase their penetration of the Chinese market.

Education NZ has been refocused to concentrate on rebuilding the valuable Chinese student market. China Southern Airlines is already bringing many more tourists to New Zealand as a result of its daily services.

But the published strategy doesn’t address the trade-offs that will need to be made between the interests of major corporates like Fonterra and Air NZ and New Zealand’s broader market goals.

In particular, Fonterra’s continuing concentration on bulk commodity exports to China when Chinese competitors, including Shanghai Pengxin, which the Government recently approved to buy the Crafar dairy farms, are concentrating their efforts on value-added products.

There is nothing in this strategy which questions whether Fonterra should be persuaded to follow suit.

Work has been underway to clarify the Overseas Investment Office rules for foreign direct investment into New Zealand – but they are still opaque.

The upside will come from persuading New Zealand businesses to move further into internationalising their operations to sell high-value products and services in areas where they have comparative strength.

But they need seed capital. This issue may be addressed in Finance Minister Bill English’s up-coming Budget.

With traditional tourism markets such as the US, Britain and Europe in a financial funk, and the mining boom-fed Australian dollar discouraging others, a surprisingly strong influx of China’s wealthy middle class is keeping the industry afloat.

Tourism Australia chairman Geoff Dixon said that in much the same way that China had revitalised Australia’s mining industry, ”China and Asia are coming to Australia’s rescue when it comes to tourism”.

China is the leader in a pack that also includes Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, with India looming as the next big thing, according to Mr Dixon.

”It’s accelerating at a rate I don’t think anybody really expected,” he said.

Forget about cheap junket tours as well. While they are now the second biggest source of tourists by numbers, Chinese visitors are already the biggest spenders.

According to Tourism Research Australia, Chinese visitors made a $3.1 billion contribution to the industry in 2010 despite their numbers being behind US tourists and less than half that of New Zealand arrivals.

By 2020, China’s economic contribution to tourism could top $6 billion, almost double that of Australia’s next most valuable market, Britain.

This strong source of growth meant the Australian tourism industry – an expected victim of the mining boom-inflated dollar – recorded moderate growth for 2010-11, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

A record 5.9 million international visitors came to Australia in the year ending June 30, 2011, up 4.4 per cent on the previous year, with one in four coming from China or south-east Asia.

But it still won’t match the increase in Australians holidaying abroad. Over the same period, Australians took 7.4 million trips overseas, an increase of 10 per cent on the previous year.

Locals also outspent international visitors on their overseas holidays.

The ABS reported Australian economic consumption on outbound trips jumped 11 per cent to $30.9 billion compared with the $23.7 billion of consumption by international visitors here, up 4.4 per cent on the previous year.

The double-digit spending increase on international trips came at the expense of domestic tourism, which rose 2.1 per cent to just under $72 billion.

Lotte Duty Free, the nation’s largest duty free seller operated by Hotel Lotte, said its sales to Chinese customers almost doubled from 8.9 per cent to 16 per cent this year amid a slight decrease in those to Japanese.

When it came to its outlet on Jeju Island, Lotte said, Chinese sales made up almost 80 per cent of the total, exceeding that of Japanese for the first time this year.

More Chinese people with purchasing power traveled Korea this year than ever brfore, especially during the Chinese “golden week” of Oct 1-7.

When some 12,000 employees at China’s Baozhen Group visited through an incentive tourism program, a Lotte duty free shop in central Seoul posted its highest-ever daily sales figure of 4.59 billion won (S$5.16 million) on Sept 18.

“If this trend continues, Chinese spending will surpass that of Japanese soon,” said a Lotte official.

The official, however, predicted that the strong yen could boost the spending of Japanese travelers again next year.

Shilla Duty Free, the second-largest duty free chain operated by Hotel Shilla, also said the ratio for Chinese and Japanese customers has narrowed this year.

Until 2009, Japanese sales at Shilla almost tripled that of Chinese. However, the ratio for Chinese is fast growing to reach 46.9 per cent this year compared to the Japanese figure of 53.1 per cent, the retailer said.

“When the Baozhen group visited in the autumn season, Chinese spending had exceeded that of Japanese for a short time,” said a Shilla official.

Chengdu portrayed its city’s image through DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda, which stood out from more than 220 contestant cases, winning the prize.

It’s a common approach to embed marketing contents in movies. Panda is a name card of Chengdu and the movie connected panda and the city closely in the audience’s mind around the world.

After the devastating earthquake, which occurred on May 12, 2008, Chengdu invited the DreamWorks Animation company to visit, experience, and incorporate its folk songs and a large amount of Chengdu’s specialties to later be embedded in Kung Fu Panda 2. As the movie gained popularity, the world’s audience has become more familiar with Chengdu, the hometown of pandas.

The conference and exhibition will showcase best practices domestically, at Chinese airports, on Chinese airlines and at sea, as well as how companies are successfully selling to Chinese consumers travelling overseas.

GIS events president Nick Tan said “We are delighted to be teaming up with Ink to bring domestic and international travel retailers together with brands from around the world. Ink has unrivalled contacts in the travel media industry, and a firm footing in the travel retail sector with the hugely successful and growing Airline Retail Conferences in Europe and Asia. By combining our strengths, we can help airports, airlines, cruise operators, concessionaires, and global and local brands develop their business with Chinese consumers—both inside China and around the world.”

Ink chief executive Jeffrey O’Rourke added: “GIS Events is the natural partner for launching China Travel Retail 2012. Building on GIS’s deep contacts and extensive experience in the Chinese airport and airline industry we aim to bring together the wide range of companies seeking to reach Chinese travellers under one roof in Shanghai.

Sri Lanka has opened a public page on Chinese Facebook, www.renren.com, with the aim of attracting more Chinese tourists to the country, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported quoting a Sri Lankan tourism official.

“As the booming economy of China has led to a creation of a rich middle class and extensive per capita spending, targeting the Chinese travel market would be an ideal opportunity for Sri Lanka,” Rumy Jauffer, managing director of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau has said.

The tourist arrivals to the island already surpassed this year’s goal with the 750,000th tourist arriving in the country last week.

The tourism official has said that opening a public page on the Chinese social networking site was a key aspect in promoting a destination via social media and creating awareness.

“We have implemented a number of programmes targeting the broad tourist base in China with the support of Chinese tour agencies,” Jauffer has said.

According to the latest statistics from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority in the first 10 months of 2011, tourist arrivals from China grew by 71.6 percent to 13,889 in October from 8,092 in January.

Tourism Minister Pat Bell said the content was all negotiated by the governments of China and Canada and the province had no role.

“We’re not necessarily endorsing the specifics,” said Bell. “We’re just simply communicating to those who may want to market into China what the rules were that were negotiated by our federal government.”

But NDP tourism critic Spencer Chandra Herbert — who is gay — says the brochure should at least carry a disclaimer.

“What signal does that send to gay and lesbian British Columbians,” said Chandra Herbert. “To me it says we’re less of a priority and one that can just be glossed over and that’s incorrect.”

Herbert said he doubts any other cultural group would be the target of such discrimination.

The prohibition is noted on page 27 of the 55-page brochure.

Casino promotion also prohibited

The brochure also notes there are prohibitions against promoting casinos or gambling.

In explaining the brochure’s content, spokeswoman Carolyn Heiman said in an email to CBC News that the ministry’s Tourism Division is acting in accordance with regulations in China from the China National Tourism Administration.

“While B.C. welcomes all tourism visitors to the province, the provisions of the [agreement] … stipulate our ability only to market certain products or to certain audiences in China, and as such we have to respect the expectations under that agreement,” Heiman said.

CECEP Solar Energy Technology Co Ltd, a unit of the state-owned giant China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group, said a planned installation of China-made panels to generate solar power in California, New Jersey and Texas would be made uneconomic by U.S. anti-dumping moves.

“If the solar panel prices increase by, say 30 percent, in the United States, following the move, then we would certainly drop the plan because there’s no profit to be made,” Cao Huabin, the general manager of CECEP Solar Energy, told a news conference in Beijing.

Prices of solar panels in the project, which account for about 70 percent of the costs, are set to jump if Washington imposes duties on imported Chinese products that U.S. rivals say breach agreed global trade rules.

“I don’t see any alternatives to Chinese solar panels,” Cao said, who described Chinese products as having “low prices but good quality.”

Seven solar manufacturers led by the U.S. arm of SolarWorld AG last month asked Washington to impose hefty duties on China solar imports. European firms may ask for similar action.

Chinese solar firms are already grappling with huge debts, tepid demand and falling prices.

“It’s almost for sure that some Chinese manufacturers will go bust, and some have to cut production sizes,” Cao said.